Memphis in 3 Days: Budget + Day Trips
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3 days: one city day, then a Clarksdale overnight
Three days lets Clarksdale stop being a rushed round trip and become an actual overnight, the way its standout attraction, the Shack Up Inn’s sharecropper-shack lodging, is meant to be experienced. Day 1 covers the Memphis city core, Day 2 drives south into the Delta blues pilgrimage and stays the night, Day 3 wraps up Clarksdale with a Tunica stop on the way back. Expect roughly $90-160 a person per day; the main Memphis, Tennessee guide has the city-side cost detail. Only have two days, the 2-day itinerary swaps the Clarksdale overnight for a quicker Tunica-only day trip. More time, the 4-day and 5-day plans add Oxford on top of this same base.
Book these before you go
- A timed Graceland ticket for Day 1
- A Shack Up Inn room in Clarksdale for Day 2 night, book ahead, especially near the Juke Joint Festival (April 11, 2026)
- A rental car for Days 2 and 3, neither Clarksdale nor Tunica has a transit option
Day 1: Memphis city core
Start at Graceland (Whitehaven, about 9 miles south, car needed, roughly $85 adult / $49 youth standard tour, or about $53 entry-level), then Sun Studio (706 Union Ave, roughly $15 adult / $10 ages 5-11) in the early afternoon. Evening: walk Beale Street (free by day, live music by night) and eat BBQ at Rendezvous or Central BBQ.
Day 1 ticket costs (per person): roughly $68-100.
Day 2: Clarksdale, Mississippi
Drive south on Highway 61, roughly 75-95 minutes, to Clarksdale, the Delta blues pilgrimage and the northern hub of the Mississippi Blues Trail south of Memphis. Spend the day at the Crossroads of Highways 61 and 49, the Delta Blues Museum, and Ground Zero Blues Club (Morgan Freeman co-owns it), then a live set at Red’s Juke Joint in the evening. Stay the night at the Shack Up Inn, sharecropper-shack lodging that’s as much the point as any single sight in town.
Day 3: Clarksdale wrap-up, Tunica, and back to Memphis
Spend the morning finishing anything Clarksdale left unseen, then drive back north, stopping in Tunica (roughly 30-45 minutes north of Clarksdale) for its casino corridor and the Gateway to the Blues Museum before continuing on to Memphis.
One honest note for the road days: the practical safety concern, whether parked outside Ground Zero Blues Club, at a Tunica casino, or downtown Memphis, is car break-ins, not violent crime. Nothing visible left in the car, “Stow It, Don’t Show It,” is the same rule everywhere on this trip.
| Day | Focus | Ticket costs (per person) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Graceland, Sun Studio, Beale Street | roughly $68-100 |
| 2 | Clarksdale: Crossroads, Delta Blues Museum, Ground Zero, Shack Up Inn overnight | modest sight costs, lodging is the main spend |
| 3 | Clarksdale wrap-up, Tunica | variable, gaming budget is your own call |
One concrete money tip: book the Shack Up Inn before you book anything else on this trip, its rooms are limited and go first around the Juke Joint Festival. Book Graceland ahead too, and the Delta days need nothing but a full tank of gas.